Intentions to Marry, 1884

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840396, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, April 30 2025

Page 322

District of Oamaru Quarter ending 31 March 1884

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	BDM Match	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Folio	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
1104	6 February 1884	John Gray Emily Jemima Matthews	John Gray Emily Jemima Matthews 💍 1884/1854	Widower Spinster	Laborer Servant	29 22	Oamaru Oamaru	21 years 6 months	The residence of the Reverend John Foster Oamaru	84/1620		6 February 1884	Revd John Foster Congregationalist
1105	7 February 1884	Richard Jameson Lillie Bruce	Richard Jamieson Lillie Bruce 💍 1884/1850	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer	24 20	Oamaru Phoenix Hill near Oamaru	13 months 20 years	The House at Phoenix Hill near Oamaru	84/1616	George Bruce father	7 February 1884	Revd A. B. Todd Presbyterian
1106	9 February 1884	John McGregor Mary Lennie	John MacGregor Mary Lennie 💍 1884/1855	Bachelor Spinster	Shipwright	26 21	Oamaru South Oamaru	9 years 16 years	The residence of Mr George Lennie South Oamaru	84/1621		9 February 1884	Revd James McGregor D.D. Presbyterian
1107	29 February 1884	George Hairll Henrietta Parnell	George Havill Henrietta Parnell 💍 1884/1867	Bachelor Spinster	Carter Servant	22 21	Oamaru Oamaru	4 days 4 days	The Office of the Registrar of Marriages Oamaru	84/1609		29 February 1884	The Registrar of Marriages Oamaru
1108	5 March 1884	Frederick Ernest Koerner Josephine Crozon		Bachelor Spinster	Wool-classer	29 24	Oamaru Oamaru	3 days 3 weeks	St Paul's Church manse Oamaru	84/1614		5 March 1884	Revd A. B. Todd Presbyterian
1109	26 March 1884	William Warrender Reid Cecilia Mitchell Kilgour	William Warrender Reid Cecilia Mitchell Kilgour 💍 1884/1852	Bachelor Spinster	Sheep farmer	30 19	Oamaru Oamaru	3 days 5 years	The residence of Mr Alexander Kilgour Tyne Street Oamaru	84/1618	Alexander Kilgour Father	26 March 1884	Revd A. B. Todd Presbyterian
1110	31 March 1884	John Tillie Thorp Mary Ann Olds	John Tillie Phaup Mary Ann Olds 💍 1884/1086	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer & Storekeeper Servant	23 21	North Oamaru North Oamaru	15 months 5 years	The residence of Mr James Olds North Oamaru	84/1601		31 March 1884	Revd Thomas Sadler Primitive Methodist
1111	31 March 1884	Joseph Beale Eliza Dallace	Joseph Beale Eliza Wallace 💍 1884/1099	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	34 30	Georgetown Georgetown	7 years 4 years	The Office of the Registrar of Marriages Oamaru	84/1590		31 March 1884	The Registrar of Marriages Oamaru

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

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What is an Intention to Marry?

The 1854 Marriage Act required Pakeha settlers (and later Maori) to register their intention to marry from 1855. The resulting Notices of intention to marry were sent by the district registrars to the Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages and bound into large volumes, each containing a year of notices. These registers were eventually deposited with Archives New Zealand.

What information does an ItM record?

A typical Intention to Marry notice records:

the bride and groom's full names
occupation of the groom (and sometimes the bride)
their ages
district where the marriage would take place
how long they had resided in the district
Where the marriage would take place (eg, a specific church)
Who would officiate the marriage (eg, a minister)
The date of the notice and also a date when the certificate was issued. Marriages had to take place within 3 months, and usually occurred within a week or so of the certificate date.
If one of the parties was under 21, a parent who consented to their marriage was usually specified

These details can provide clues for genealogical and historical research. Knowing the date and district makes it easier to look for wedding notices in Papers Past, and the amount of time that the parties had resided in a district can offer clues to whether a person was born in NZ, or when they immigrated.

However, finding individual records in the Intentions to Marry registers was typically a slow and manual process, usually requiring an in-person visit to Archives NZ's Wellington office (during limited opening hours) and using a handwritten card catalogue index to look up individual names.

Eight years of the registers had been digitised by Archives NZ prior to 2024, but even these digital versions required the use of a manual index and usually examining several pages to locate specific records.

What is the Intentions to Marry Project?

This project aims to transcribe the New Zealand Intentions to Marry registers (from 1855 to 1925) with the assistance of new technology (AI), making the records freely available and easily searchable.

The ITM records have also been cross-referenced with the registered marriages at DIA Births, Deaths and Marriages, where possible (a small fraction of the recorded intentions to marry did not become a registered marriage).

Currently we have almost all records between 1855 and 1894. More registers will be added as the project continues.

The project is led by Luke Howison, a web developer who made the free genealogical research search tool NZ Ancestor Search Helper and Archway-style Collections Search. There are also some wonderful volunteers assisting with digitising the registers.

Can I volunteer to help?

Yes, you can! You can sign up to correct errors in the transcribed records and match ITMs with registered marriages.

I am also looking for Wellington-based volunteers to help me digitise more years of the registers. I can provide lighting equipment and a 'clicker' (to trigger your phone's camera).

How is the transcription done?

There are several steps to digitising and transcribing the records:

Digitising the registers (taking clean, straight, high-quality photos)
Processing the digitised pages by straightening, cropping and sharpening the images
Transcribing each page with a combination of AI tools
Matching each ITM with a registered marriage when possible
Human verification of the transcribed information

The main LLM (AI) used are the Google Gemini Pro and Flash models, which have excellent 'Vision' capabilities, and a generous free tier.

Archives NZ has released the register years they have digitised (1865-69, 1872, 1874 and 1880) under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 license.

The Intention to Marry registers (up to 1925) are more than 100 years old, so their Crown Copyright has expired, putting them in the public domain. This also applies to any 'mechanical reproductions' (eg, pictures or photocopies) of their content without substantial alteration.

The transcribed records on this website are released under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal license, which allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, even for commercial purposes, while giving credit to the creator (NZ Intentions to Marry Project).